Prayer for the Day

by Revd Canon David White

19th April 2026 - 3rd Sunday of Easter

Some days, although we cannot pray, a prayer
utters itself. So, a woman will lift
her head from the sieve of her hands and stare
at the minims sung by a tree, a sudden gift.

Some nights, although we are faithless, the truth
enters our hearts, that small familiar pain;
then a man will stand stock-still, hearing his youth
in the distant Latin chanting of a train.

Pray for us now, Grade 1 piano scales
console the lodger looking out across
a Midlands town. Then dusk, and someone calls
a child’s name as though they named their loss.

Darkness outside. Inside, the radio’s prayer –
Rockall. Malin. Dogger. Finisterre.

This poem, entitled simply “Prayer”, is by Carol Ann Duffy, a Scottish poet and playwright who was Poet Laureate from 2009 to 2019. The poem is, in part, a reminder of the teaching of Brother Lawrence, the seventeenth century monk whose works were collected and published after his death under the title, “The Practice of the Presence of God”. Brother Lawrence maintained that God is found in the ordinary moments of our lives. He worked repairing sandals for the other monks and also in the busy monastery kitchen, peeling potatoes and washing dishes. He believed that God was with him there. He wrote, “to me, going to work does not differ from spending time in prayer. In the noise and clutter of my kitchen I possess God with the same level of tranquillity as if I were on my knees”.

This poem places prayer in the mundane and ordinary patterns of routine, drawing out the sacred in the midst of life. Prayer, in this poem, is not only about what we say to God. It is also about the ways God speaks to us to offer comfort in isolation and hope in our grief. When we can find no words to pray just being present with God, wherever we are, is enough.